


Prison Nightmares

by thenakednymph



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Comfort, Cuddles, Fuck summaries I’m tired, God I have a thing for the red and blue gay wtf, God am I late to this party, I have a thing for nightmare fics apparently, I live here now, I love that tag, M/M, Nightmares, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 10:14:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17620538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenakednymph/pseuds/thenakednymph
Summary: Prison nightmares and awkward cuddles.





	Prison Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> I should probably wait to post this but I’m not going to. It’s 6am, I’ve been up all night, I have no idea where this fits in the canon and don’t care. Nor do I care that I am posting Zukka fan fiction in the year of our Lords and Ladies 2019. Hail Satan and have a gay day.

Sokka’s making little noises of distress in his sleep. There’s a sheen of sweat on his skin in spite of how cold it is in the prison cell, and he’s twitching on the little sleep mat. Zuko watches for awhile before Sokka gives a hard jerk, his head thrashing to the side.

“...no,” he mumbles. Zuko hesitates for a moment bur finally stands, moving across the room to crouch down by Sokka’s side. He touches his shoulder, trying to wake him. He’s been thrashing for the better part of an hour now.

There’s a small bit of flame in Zuko’s other hand so he can see and the light catches along tears on Sokka’s face. 

“Sokka.” He touches Sokka’s shoulder, shaking him. “Sokka wake up.” 

He makes another of those awful little noises before jerking awake. Seeing Zuko crouching over him, a fall of flame in his hand Sokka recoils with a shout, scrambling backwards. He’s still half caught in the dream and he hits the bars hard enough to bruise, eyes wide with terror. Zuko watches him make an aborted movement for his boomerang before he can stop it, remembering it’s not there. Or maybe that Zuko isn’t trying to hurt him. Not that Zuko believes it, but he can hope. 

Sokka’s eyes are wide and terrified, even in the dark and Zuko sees the moment they clear,  if only a little. 

Sokka is struggling to shake off the nightmare and Zuko doesn’t want to think on what it could have been about. Especially given Sokka’s violent reaction to seeing him. He smothers the flame in his hand before he has to see any more, humiliated and angry. Maybe some small part of him hoping it was the fire Sokka was afraid of and not him. 

“I was trying to help.” His voice is tight and something mean curls in his chest, strangling his heart. 

Zuko stands and crosses back to the other side of the cell, hiding in his corner again, knees to his chest and glares at the shadows pooling in the far corner. 

He can’t stand listening to Sokka’s jagged breaths, see him trembling in the dark but Zuko can’t say he blames Sokka for reacting the way he had. After everything he’d done to them if he’d seen his own ruined face looming up at him out of the dark he’d have tried to attack himself too. His fingers curl in the material of his pants. 

He has no doubt he’s been the source of more than one nightmare for the boy and the others as well. The thought makes something sick twist inside him and the self-loathing he feels only curls tighter around his heart.

It feels like hours pass but Sokka’s far from calming down. If anything his breathing goes more shallow and rapid in the dark.

There are no windows in the cell and no light to speak of, leaving the room in inky blackness, all consuming. 

“Zuko?” Sokka’s voice is wrecked but Zuko doesn't answer, just curls closer into himself hoping Sokka will think he’s asleep. “Zuko!?” The rising panic in Sokka’s voice has him breaking his silence. 

“I’m here.”

Sokka jerks towards the sound of his voice and Zuko realizes he’s blind. 

Pride still smarting Zuko lets one of his arms loosen, a low ember-light glowing in his palm, drifting out from between his fingers. He hears Sokka scramble across the stone and the shifting of fabric. Then Sokka’s pressing into his side and Zuko has to yank his hand back to keep from burning the other boy. Sokka burrows under Zuko's arm, the blanket pulled right around his shoulders, shivering. He’s small and scared and Zuko has no idea how to help. 

Arm still held aloft he sits rigid and uncomfortable, afraid to move. 

“I don’t- I don’t know what to do,” he confesses, afraid of scaring him further, of making things worse. Again. 

After a moment Sokka reaches for his wrist, still held aloft, and Zuko extinguishes the flame, letting Sokka yank his arm down around his shoulders, pressing closer in the sudden dark. His breath is stuttering out in what sounds like a sob and Zuko forces his arm to relax, holding Sokka closer. Sokka breaks, a full sob leaving him and he hides his face in Zuko’s shoulder, numb fingers clutching at the blanket, knees to his chest. 

Zuko remembers waking from nightmares as a child and needing his mother. She’d pull him into her lap, run her hands through his hair and whisper that he was safe, that everything was okay. He doesn’t know if such a thing would be welcome now, least of all from him, but he doesn’t know what else to do. He’s never had to comfort anyone before.

“Okay. I don’t-” He sets his teeth, making up his mind and does the best he can. “Come here.” Sokka lets himself be manhandled into Zuko’s lap, too desperate for comfort to care what’s happening. He just needs the images in his head to stop. The blood and the screams and the terror, he needs it to  _ stop. _

Zuko gathers him in his arms, bracketing Sokka with his knees, cradling him against his chest. 

He runs his fingers through Sokka’s hair, startled to realize it’s down. He can’t remember ever seeing Sokka’s hair out of his wolf tail.

“It’s okay,” he whispers, grateful for the dark. He has no idea what he’s doing but Sokka’s breaths have started to slow so he has to be doing something right.

“You’re safe.” It feels like a lie in his mouth but he says it anyway, smoothing a hand over Sokka’s hair again. It’s softer than he’d thought it would be. 

“I’m not gonna let anything hurt you.” That one at least feels true. Not if he can help it. He’s done enough damage already. The least he can do is try to protect them now. All of them. 

He tightens his arms around Sokka, letting his fingers draw patterns on his arm through the blanket and hums to fill the silence. He doesn’t know what to say but remembers hating the silence himself after a nightmare. It was too easy to slip back into it without his mother’s voice to focus on. So he fills the silence the only other way he knows how.

Sokka is slowly relaxing into his chest and Zuko brushes his hair behind his ear to get it out of his face before settling his arm around him again. 

Sokka tucks his nose against the side of Zuko’s throat, startling him. 

“You’re cold.” 

Zuko’s hands warm and he presses one to the back of Sokka’s neck where the blanket doesn’t reach, making him shiver. The other runs down Sokka’s arm under the blanket where it’s slipped open and he exhales a careful breath, warming the air around them. 

“Better?” After a moment Sokka nods, tucking his face against Zuko’s throat again. His cheeks are still wet and Zuko runs a hand over Sokka’s back before holding him again. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asks. Sokka shakes his head and Zuko tucks the blanket higher around his shoulders. 

“Okay.” He turns his head, lips brushing against Sokka’s head. “Try to sleep.” He exhales into the space again, feeling Sokka’s lashes flutter against his throat. 

Several moments pass, Zuko’s fingers still running idly across the blanket on Sokka’s back. 

“Thank you.” Sokka’s voice is a dry whisper, one Zuko can barely hear even in the silence. 

“Go to sleep Sokka.” 


End file.
